Rocked and Rolled

Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon -

What a great event! The support was the best in any race I've been in, by far. Not to say it's always bad, not at all, just that the support of the race yesterday was way over the top - in a good way...

Each water station, lining both sides of the road, had a minimum of about 40-50 volunteers. Some had 100's, mind blowing as you ran by a sea of hands handing out water and CytoMax for what seemed like a full block. Very cool.

The day was clear skies and expected to reach mid 70's - great for pictures, maybe not so much for running. It was amazing to see the sea of humanity stretched out before and behind as far as you could see. Most races have about 5000 runners both 1/2 and full combined, yesterdays had 25,000 combined. It's surprising when you see a familiar face, or even a few in the sea of people.

The day went well until mile 22, then the pain of my IT Ban started to really effect my stride and I slowed from about 8:20 minute miles to about 9:45 and having to walk about 4-5 times to let my right leg stretch out. The goal for yesterday was to finish of course, but was also not to stop moving forward, so no standing or leaning to rest. However, I felt I had plenty of energy and mental focus to stay running in the mean miles (23-26), I just had a blowout that made it physically impossible to stay running the whole time.

If I was a car it would be like both front and back tires on the right side had flats, I still had half a tank and the engine was fine, but I had to bring it in slow.

On the route I did get to see Lynn and Jaime at the turn around on 99, which was great! I can't ever say enough about what a boost emotionally seeing someone you care for show up and cheer for you. You can carry and have a lift for the rest of the race if you see someone for even 15 seconds on the course as you run by. Amazing...

Shell and Lil' K were out there as well supporting Alley, Tony and I. The three of us after 7 odd years of running finally running the same Marathon together, crazy! Alley had a great day despite falling down some stairs two days before and hurting her back and Tony finished strong having to work through some cramps late in the race.

Overall a pretty sweet day, got home had a 3 hours nap, picked up pizza and movie and crashed early. Not bad for a full days work...

Been there, seen that...

It's been a few....

Last weekend I got a chance w/ the group to go and ride the Lake Stevens bike course. Pretty sweet course! Lots of little rollers and some good, at least 3 tasty hills. The course seems like one you can really enjoy and take advantage of the rollers to swing you up the hills.

The goal would be to jump on it at least two more times, hopefully three, before race day comes.

I still need to get in the water w/ some consistency. I've only been able to get in 2x a week over the last 6 weeks. Not acceptable! I don't think I'll be the swimmer this year that I was last year. A little sad, but that's OK. Maybe that will change in a few weeks.

More later, have to run to swim class...

Bodies, rest and motion....

Last week I had a short easy, but intense training week. Week started w/ a good run ( 8.5 miles ) then a bike followed with a well planned day off. Then Wednesday fresh legs for the track, which I wanted to bury myself in - end in a redline one set out w/ a short rest and a final 400m to end on dead legs. I just wanted to put a little hurt in the room to remember the season had started : )

Then I had a bike hill climb the following day with the group - lots of fun, out and around the Mag Loop, Friday was a bike into and back from work (fake day off from training). Pizza at lunch, mmmm

Saturday was a really good honest 12 mile run. Flat first 8 miles then a nasty climb up to the house for the last four. Felt a bit heavy the first 2 miles, ran really slow and wanted to warm up into the pace that I figured would come soon enough.

I was thinking on the run, last week was heavy this week was short and striking. I read a blog entry from a friend of mine Joe Tysoe that talked about “Hammerfests”. And I guess I was thinking about that this last week in that the basic theme was every big effort needs and big recovery. One big week, one smaller - still intense, focused week.

That also got me to thinking about “Hammerfests” in general. I think they’re a waste of time and is something that only distracts or destroys your training schedule. If you have a light day because you worked yourself the day before, but your buddy wants to challenge you to a “easy” 6 mile run and you end up showing them who owns who, but miss the next two or three days of training, then what’s the point?

I love the huge long run on sentences that I can get myself in : )

Anyways -

Today I had a great day on the bike! I did my Blue Ridge loop course, nasty even for me. The last time I hit the top of Blue Ridge I had to jump off my bike and check if I had a stuck brake. I jumped off and spun front and back, but they rolled fine - %$#^%

Fine.

I wanted to check recovery rate, edge upwards of 85% effort w/ out blowing up on five different hill sets, then all out on the last. I figured the 2-3 minutes back down would give me enough recovery time, without getting cold in between sets.

Result-

About a week or two away from the cardio that I want and know I had last year, but still getting stronger as I warm up.

One of the keys this year will be to not be afraid to have a good solid warm up. Sounds easy.....maybe not.

Well this next week adds a few things: swimming? Pool and open water.

Ok, like Flipper said walking home from the bar “I need to get in the water!”. I picked up a new wetsuit today so there’s no - good excuses left....

Penny of course doesn't see the need for a wetsuit

Checking in...

It's been a great few weeks of training. I've gotten back into pretty good form and am ready to start full swim training in the next few weeks. I finally feel at the point of giving a good hard effort without thinking I'm going to hurt myself in the long run.

I think a few weeks back I put in a great effort on a 28 mile bike ride w/ about 2400 ft of climbing and ended up not doing anything for the next 2 days.

However, having said that I do think I pulled something in my left inner thigh at track on Tuesday. It nags a bit when I'm running or biking, but mostly when I'm just sitting around.
I think a few light days and ice and heat will take care of that.

Well I have a long bike today, but the weather turn rainy and windy so I might just do a short bike w/ a short run. We'll see : )

Start adding fuel....

Tomorrow I start the direct training and get off the build phases of training. Sort of I'm in shape now to start the real training.

Being sick the last week and a half makes it feel like I'm farther behind than I am. I should of been in shape and healthy enough to race the Carnation TT on Sunday, but you can't lose sleep over what you can't control. I feel close enough to 100% that Sunday I'll start the heavy lifting towards this years goals.

The main focus will be to slow down. I've done three years of Sprints and it's hard to switch gears from 85%-90% to 80%-85%. I have a feeling I'll have to relearn pace all over again and really not ignore feeding and refueling. 2008 was a great year and I think I can learn a lot from mainly not being afraid to push at my limits. However, pushing your limits and not pacing have two very different results.

In 2007 at the Victoria Half Marathon I pushed my limits and had a great result and PR. Whereas, 5 months later at Nookachamps 2008, I didn't pace, ran with the wrong pack that was too fast and just about died 2 minutes from the finish line. Terrible day, once you overextend you can't really fish it back in, the damage has been done. That was the 10k and I knew I'd gone out too fast at mile 3,where the half course splits off. After the split is a nasty hill that just keeps climbing. I could feel my legs dead and flat about 25yards before the climb started. Urgh Argh.....

Anyways, tomorrow starts all the real work and fun! It is work, but come on now, I wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't fun.

"I am building a fire, and everyday I train, I am adding fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match."

Tomorrow I start adding fuel....

2 steps forward, 1 step back...

The last few weeks training have been going really well.

I got in some bike rides of 25-35 miles and had some explosive spin classes that left me a bit weak in the knees, in a good way. The running was feeling on track with a few 6 and 7 mile pushes of 85%-90% efforts, 3 days a week.

And the swim, I've only had 2 swims since the last time I wrote, but one was for 30 minutes and the other was a 50 minute swing doing 8 pace laps, 2 pass laps,1 minute rest, my idea of swim training. I swim at pace for a few, then in passing mode for a few. It's my PISS swim training.

A few years ago Floyd Landis had an interview in a mag and he was talking about hill training or Steep Hill Interval Training - SHIT....

I thought that was GREAT so me and Alley came up with
PISS: Passing In Swim Situation
CRAP: Continual Running At Pace

So in the thick of training to can have your days or hands full PISS, SHIT or CRAP. Sometimes PISS as number one and SHIT or CRAP as number two...

All very messy if you don't fuel or recover properly.

Anyways I've been sick for the last few days and feel pretty rundown. I know I'll get over this soon, but I feel like I'll have to yet again start training over again. It's just the preseason anxiety that happens every year. Last night was the first late night mental check list of all the things I haven't done yet, Grrh Argh...

I do know that after I get over this cold I won't be taking days off or doing token workouts to just cross off the board. Nothing lights a fire like the thought of disappointing yourself and those that support you....

Once again, back at it....

OK, I've been away for a few - sort of recharging the batteries and seeing what's up for this next year. As always, it seems too early to start training, then too late and you feel behind.

Well this year I'm focusing on the Lake Stevens 70.3, my first of that distance. I think the only others right now I want to say for sure are Federal Way Oly, Seafair Tri and Kirkland. Issaquah may be in there as well, but I need to focus on longer pacing not sprint. Don't get me wrong I'll probably get that first Issaquah in there to calm the racing nerves.

I want to avoid late season burnout that leads to fall-winter stalemate. I love the work and the training and the races, although sometiimes the races are the icing on the cake.

The other thing I want t do this year is race a few TT on the bike. The ones in Carnation should be a lot of fun and a great learning curve for pace and endurance. I was getting excited about the TT when I was re-fitting my aero bars on Luke. I ended up moving them back 3 full inches. I can't believe I was all superman style last year : )

Well, in about 3 weeks training for the Rock and Roll Seattle Marathon starts and I'm looking forward to really getting behind a good training schedule and knocking that down.

Alley as well said she wants to look at PR'ing at RNR. I think that means she's all in for the 26.2. Plus training usually means getting together with Team Cannoli from across the water so that's always fun.....

I think the later start on training is fine this year, mostly cuz there's nothing you can do about losing the last 2 months anyways, but still. The only concern is getting my swim back to where I was last year, if I can focus the next 6 weeks to swim I think the rest will fall into place. Falling in place meaning kicking my ass back into shape : )